1. Field
The following disclosure relates to Augmented Reality (AR), and more particularly, to a method for authorizing use of Augmented Reality (AR) information and an apparatus to perform the method.
2. Discussion of the Background
Augmented Reality (AR) is a kind of Virtual Reality (VR) that provides images in which a real world viewed by users' eyes is merged with a virtual world providing additional information. The AR is similar to existing VR, but the VR provides users with only virtual spaces and objects, whereas the AR synthesizes virtual objects based on a real world to provide additional information that cannot be easily provided in the real world. Unlike the VR based on a completely virtual world, the AR combines virtual objects with a real environment. The AR has been studied in U.S and Japan from the latter half of the 1990's and recently, with improvement in computing capability of mobile devices, such as a mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and with continued development of wireless network devices, various AR services are being provided.
For example, details and additional information associated with objects on a real environment photographed by a camera of a mobile phone are virtually created and merged with the objects on the real environment and then output or displayed on a screen. However, such a conventional AR service exposes all information through mobile phones and accordingly has drawbacks in view of information security. Furthermore, since the conventional AR service provides a user with unnecessary information regardless of the user's intention, the user may have difficulties in searching for desired information from among information provided on the screen of the mobile phone. A method of filtering desired information out from a large amount of information that is provided through a user's terminal to provide the user with only the filtered information has been developed. However, the method also causes a long delay time to process and filter out the desired information. Thus, another solution is needed.